Country (sports) United States French Open W (1946, 1949) Partner Margaret Varner Bloss Highest ranking No. 1 (1947) Grand slams won (singles) 6 | Role Tennis player Plays Right-handed Name Margaret duPont Handed Right-handed | |
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Full name Margaret Evelyn Osborne duPont Born March 4, 1918
Joseph, Oregon, U.S. ( 1918-03-04 ) Died October 24, 2012, El Paso, Texas, United States Spouse William du Pont, Jr. (m. 1947–1964) Similar People Louise Brough, Margaret Varner Bloss, Neale Fraser, Bill Talbert, William du Pont - Jr | ||
Int. Tennis HoF 1967 (member page) | ||
Margaret Osborne duPont (born Margaret Evelyn Osborne; March 4, 1918 – October 24, 2012) was a World No. 1 American female tennis player.
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DuPont won a total of 37 singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, which places her fourth on the all-time list despite never entering the Australian Championships. She won 25 of her Grand Slam titles at the U.S. Championships, which is an all-time record.
Career
DuPont won six Grand Slam singles titles, saving match points in the finals of the 1946 French Championships (versus Pauline Betz) and 1948 U.S. Championships (versus Louise Brough). In terms of games played, the 1948 final at the U.S. Championships is the longest women's singles final ever played at that tournament (48 games).
DuPont teamed with Louise Brough to win 20 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, which ties Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver for the most Grand Slam titles ever won by a women's doubles team. DuPont and Brough won nine consecutive titles at the U.S. Championships from 1942 through 1950. They won that tournament 12 of the 14 years they entered as a team. Their 12 titles is an all-time record for a women's doubles team at the U.S. Championships, easily surpassing the four career titles won by the teams of Navratilova and Shriver, Doris Hart and Shirley Fry, and Sarah Palfrey and Alice Marble. DuPont won a total of 13 women's doubles titles at the U.S. Championships, which also is an all-time record, as is her 10 consecutive women's doubles titles at the U.S. Championships from 1941 through 1950.
DuPont won more mixed doubles titles at the U.S. Championships than any other player. She won nine titles, including four with William Talbert (a record for a mixed doubles team at the U.S. Championships) and three with Neale Fraser.
According to John Olliff and Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, duPont was ranked in the world top ten from 1946 through 1950, 1953, 1954, 1956, and 1957 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 1 in those rankings from 1947 through 1950. DuPont was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association in 1938, 1941 through 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1958. She was the top ranked U.S. player from 1948 through 1950.
From 1938 through 1958, DuPont went undefeated in ten Wightman Cup competitions, winning her ten singles and nine doubles matches. She also captained the U.S. team nine times, winning eight.
Personal life
Margaret married William duPont, Jr. on November 26, 1947 and later interrupted her career to give birth to a son, William duPont III on July 22, 1952. She is one of the few women to win a major title after childbirth. DuPont never played the Australian Championships because her husband would not let her.
They didn't start to invite people down there and pay their expenses until I got married, and that was wintertime and Will's vacation time, and I just never got to go. He threatened to divorce me if I went to Australia, so I never went. He had that respiratory trouble, and he wanted me to come to California with him. He thought I should be with him. That was that.
She later divorced duPont in 1964 and formed a life partnership with fellow player Margaret Varner Bloss.
DuPont died on October 24, 2012 while in hospice care in El Paso, Texas at age 94.
Awards
She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967. The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame inducted duPont in 1999. In 2010, she was inducted into the US Open Court of Champions.
Mixed doubles
R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
1In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.